Red Bull Loses Ricciardo Appeal

PARIS – Red Bull Racing has lost their appeal against Daniel Ricciardo’s exclusion from last month’s Australian Grand Prix results.

Ricciardo was disqualified from second place after his car was found to have exceeded the maximum permitted fuel flow rate.

Following Monday’s sitting in Paris in which it heard evidence from all parties, the International Court of Appeal decided to uphold the decision of the Melbourne stewards. Red Bull Racing has accepted the Court’s verdict, full details of which will be published by the FIA later this week.

Red Bull chose to rely on their own fuel calculations at Albert Park after experiencing what they termed ‘inconsistencies’ with the FIA-approved flow meter, but insisted they could prove they never exceeded the 100kg per hour limit.

The FIA – Formula One racing’s governing body – countered that allowances had been made for any such inconsistencies and that using alternative calculation methods without its express permission was in itself also a breach of the regulations.

“We are of course disappointed by the outcome and would not have appealed if we didn’t think we had a very strong case,” Red Bull Racing said in a statement. “We always believed we adhered to the technical regulations throughout the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. We are sorry for Daniel that he will not be awarded the 18 points from the event, which we think he deserved. We will continue to work very hard to amass as many points as possible for the team, Daniel and Sebastian (Vettel) throughout the season.

“We will now move on from this and concentrate on this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.”